Telegram Ban in India Sparks Surge in VPN and Alternative App Downloads

India's decision to block access to Telegram for a week, citing exam-related fraud, triggered an unprecedented surge in downloads of VPNs and alternative messaging apps, according to app intelligence firms.

Appfigures reported that Tuesday, the day the restriction was announced (June 16), saw the highest number of VPN app downloads in India since at least the start of 2025. Downloads of major VPN apps rose 49% from a recent daily average of 139,000 to 208,000.

Proton VPN and Turbo VPN recorded some of the largest increases. Proton VPN downloads on Apple's App Store in India jumped 113%, while Google Play downloads climbed 64%. Turbo VPN saw an 85% increase on the App Store and 35% on Google Play. NordVPN's App Store downloads increased 41%, and ExpressVPN downloads on Google Play rose 31%. Several VPNs climbed app-store charts: Proton VPN advanced from 18th to 5th in Apple's Utilities ranking from June 16 to 18, and from 8th to 2nd in Google Play's Tools category, according to Appfigures.

Proton said daily registrations from India rose 120% above baseline on June 18, following a 150% spike in hourly registrations on the evening of June 16. Canadian VPN provider Windscribe reported a similar pattern, with signups roughly 100% above baseline and first-time iOS app downloads up about 89%.

Sensor Tower data showed that VPN category downloads in India increased 10% day-over-day on June 17, reversing a two-week decline.

Users also flocked to Telegram alternatives. Signal downloads surged 72% on the App Store and 322% on Google Play; Viber downloads rose 216% on the App Store. Telegram-linked app iMe saw Google Play downloads jump from a daily average of 827 to 50,900 on June 16.

Despite the ban, Telegram's daily active users in India actually increased 17% on the announcement day, its largest single-day gain since a major Meta outage in 2021. Cloudflare noted a sharp rise in DNS requests for Telegram domains, suggesting attempts to bypass the block.

Telegram has challenged the order in the Delhi High Court, arguing it removed channels identified by authorities and questioning the necessity of a platform-wide ban affecting over 150 million users. The government defended the measure as a temporary, event-linked response. The court reserved its verdict until Friday.

The reaction echoes past events: Sensor Tower noted that VPN downloads in the U.S. rose over 40% week-over-week after TikTok was briefly removed from app stores in 2025, and Windscribe observed similar patterns following restrictions in Iran and Russia.